Day 1/90 Through the Bible--Genesis 1-16

It’s interesting to imagine Moses writing down what God described to him in Creation. I wonder about how much Moses actually understood. Grass. Herbs. Fruit. Greater light. Lesser light. Sea creatures. Birds. “Cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth.” Okay, Moses knows about grass. Lots of grassy, green plants. “Sea creatures,” or “moving creatures.” A swarm “active mass of minute animals.” (Strong’s) I would guess he didn’t know much about what went on in the seas. He knew of fish, at least. As far as land animals go, I wouldn’t be surprised if cattle and sheep formed the majority of Moses’ experiences in that arena. Sure, he was a shepherd, but he seems very specific with “cattle” and then very un-specific with “creeping thing and beast of the earth.” It’s like he’s saying, “And, all those other things that walk.” Perhaps “cattle” is just a generalization for large animals? Let’s check. Okay, the Hebrew word is where we get “behemoth.” It basically means “a dumb beast, especially a quadruped or animal” (Strong’s) So, it’s a nice generalization. Memo to self: When Moses speaks of cattle (in my version), he may be talking about land animals.

God made the plants before the sun. Did God support them with photosynthesis before the sun showed up, or were they able to survive until the sun showed up the next day? What day were the insects made? I would think that they would be included with the animals. So, the poor Venus Fly Traps would have to wait a few days before getting a snack.

2:1-3 God rested on the 7^th day. My first thought is that if God took a break, then everything would fall apart. He holds everything together. He can’t take a break! However . . . if I take a break and rest, I don’t die. God was setting up a pattern of behavior for us to follow. Rest doesn’t mean not breathing, or pumping blood, or eating. Rest is an act of renewal. It’s a conscious pause in the chaos of life in which I choose to set aside the wastes of time and my to-do list. I can choose to enjoy life, pausing to appreciate it. If God takes a break, I die. If I don’t take a break, I die.

 Perhaps the four rivers branching out of Eden were the inspiration for the five rivers of hell in Greek mythology. 2:10-14

 “It is not good that man should be alone.” 2:18. Didn’t Adam have God? Adam wasn’t really alone. This is the first time God looked on His creation and said it wasn’t good. However, he wasn’t saying that Adam wasn’t good. It was only the fact that Adam was alone that wasn’t good. Does that mean God created something that was  . . .  deficient? *gasp* No, no, calm down. In a way, we’re all deficient without God. However, I believe that man was made incomplete, because man was made in God’s image. No, I don’t mean that God is incomplete. God is three Persons. These three Persons support and work with each other, just as man was created to support and work with another person.

2:21 I wonder if Adam had a scar from where the rib was taken out. If God closed up the flesh, it must’ve been perfect. Also, how did Adam know about his “surgery”? He knew that Eve was made from him, because of what he first said. Did God tell him? It’s also interesting to think of verse 24. Eve came from Adam’s flesh, and Adam’s flesh is reunited as the two become one flesh in marriage.

Did Adam and Eve have bellybuttons?

3:1 Why a snake?

4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” This is representative of the human condition. Sin hovers over us, but we are meant to soar free of its clutches.

5:3 Adam was 130 when he had Seth (son #3), which makes me wonder how old Cain and Abel had been. How long did Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden? Did Adam’s count of years begin before or after leaving the Garden? Did they even know how to track the years then or did God just tell Moses how long they had lived? Most of the people listed in the genealogy of chapter 5 lived to be over 900 years. Perhaps they figured it out in all that time, but if not, they must’ve had lives that just SEEMED really long, with no means of measuring it. But, I suppose, they wouldn’t have thought their lives were that long, since they had nothing else to compare it with. From Adam, to Seth, to Enosh, to Cainan, to Mahalalel, to Jared, to Enoch, to Methuselah, to Lamech, to Noah, the oldest guy (at death) was 969, and the youngest was 895. This is excluding Enoch, who didn’t die. He only reached 365 years old, and God took him. He must’ve been a devoted friend of God for God to take him when he’s only lived about 3/5 of his life.

Anyways, back to Cain and Abel. I wonder if they had families of their own. In the genealogy, the youngest age (that is listed) of having a son is 65, and the oldest is 187 (aside from Noah, who really threw the curve at 500 years old). So, the youngest it is listed that they have kids, is already a senior citizen. If Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden and had Cain and Abel right away, then it’s possible that they had been old enough to have families before the murder. However, it’s not until after the murder (and subsequent curse) that Cain begins his family. So, perhaps Abel had no family of his own.
I also wonder whether Seth was born before or after Abel was killed.

I’ve also kinda wondered before how the population of the world increased so much over the ten generations (Adam to Noah) that there would be so many people and cities and be so evil. However, when people live for 900 years, they are bound to have a few children (even if they wait until 65 to start). I wonder how early the girls married. With 900 years, and no contraceptives, I’m sure there were quite a few children born. I’m more surprised that they were able to procure enough food for everyone.

Adam: You’re pregnant AGAIN? We’re already got 5 babies, and I’m working and sweating all day as it is to put food in everyone’s mouths!
Eve: Well, they’re not eating YOU alive. You don’t have to carry them all around day or give birth to them!
Their understanding and technology must have advanced rapidly. It’s a lot of people. If they are living to be 900, they must’ve been pretty tough. If a woman had only 1 baby every two years, then she still may have had hundreds of children in her lifespan. If parents nowadays call the kid by the wrong name on occasion, it’s normal. I wonder how often the mothers called the wrong name back then. Also, let’s just give a low estimate (for living 900 years) and say that one woman may have had only 100 kids in her lifetime. Now, if each of those kids had 100 of their own, that’s somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 grandkids to remember (I leave a wide estimate because of the custom of siblings marrying back then). Just think of the size of the wallet you’d have to have in order to show all of them off. And, if you live that long, you might just have great-grandchildren, or great-great-grandchildren also. Adam himself lived long enough to have met his great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Methuselah. Seth and Enosh also lived long enough to meet their great-great-great-great-great-grandsons. However, it decreases after that. Cainan only lasts to his great-great-great-great-grandson, Mahalalel his great-great-great-grandson, Jared his great-great-grandson, Enoch his grandson (but he’s an exception because of his early departure), Methuselah his great-great-grandson, and Lamech his grandson(s).
Interestingly enough, Methuselah dies the year of the Flood. Perhaps he died in the Flood, or perhaps God delayed the Flood until after his death. Methuselah’s father was Enoch and walked with God, which I sometimes forget. I feel like they are usually treated as two very separate Bible stories. However, we are told in Exodus 20 to “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long.” Perhaps Methuselah honored his father, and that’s why he lived so long. I can just imagine an ancient Methuselah taking his last breath just as the rains began. God had told Noah the time of the Flood, perhaps He planned it, knowing that would be when Methuselah would die.

It never ceases to amaze me in 6:5 that “every intent of the thoughts of his [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” The entirety of mankind’s thoughts and plans was merely evil. The word for evil (ra’ah) is used twice in this verse. “Bad, evil (naturally or morally), adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, displease (-ure), distress, evil, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), mischief, (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong.” (Strong’s) The evil was abundant. The Hebrew word “kol” is also used twice in this verse. “The whole; hence all, any or every, (in) all (manner), altogether, any (manner), enough, every (one, place, thing).” (Strong’s) ALL the thoughts were only evil ALL the time. That just astounds me how people are so evil, so aggressively evil. While the depths of depravity is still a surprise, the depths of mercy is also still a surprise.

6:22 “This Noah did, according to all that God commanded him, do he did.” This guy must be related to Abraham (Oh wait . . . hee hee), because he’s got some awesome faith and obedience going on. My family has a joke in our house, because my dad likes to talk about all these wonderful things we could/should do. “We could stop by McDonalds on the way home and then catch a movie tonight,” or, “We should all go pick out tablets, and then we’d all have one!” He’s really not meaning most of it literally, but we like to tease him for it. Sometimes, he gets our hopes up for no reasons, so we have started replying, “You said it. Now we’ve gotta do it.” If only we treated the Word of God like that. “You said it, now I will do all that You have commanded.” It’s as simple as that.

8:2 In my mind, I think I’ve always painted this idea of the sky raining until it couldn’t rain anymore; the fountains of the deep exhausting themselves, stopping, and then the flood waters receding. However, the Bible just says that they stopped. God restrained the rain. They could have kept going! As it was, it took 150 days for the floodwaters to recede. How long would it have taken if God had let the storms go for longer? I’m sure God could have let it go until Noah reached outer space. I’ve always wondered that if the ark was floating above the mountains, was the air thin? All those poor people and animals in one big boat, with one window and thin air. I’m sure glad God promised to never do that again.

8:20-21 Noah made sacrifices of clean animals, “and the LORD smelled a soothing [or pleasant] aroma.” Yeah, I bet it smelled pleasant. Barbeque usually smells pretty good.

9:6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.” People often attribute the “eye for an eye” idea to Moses (or to the law given at the time of Moses) or to Hammurabi, but it seems like the idea of equal retribution was originally introduced from God here, just after the Flood.

Chapter 10 just amazes me. It maps out the origins of nations.

Japheth’s descendents are linked to the Assyrians, the Medes, the Greeks, the Sythians, Cyprus, etc.
Ham’s descendents are linked to the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Assyrians, the Arabs, the Phoenicians, the Philistines, the Amorites, the Jebusites, etc.
Shem’s descendents (the Shemites, or Semites, where we get Semitic people) are linked to the Arabs, the Israelites, the Midianites, the Ishmaelites, the Edomites, the Assyrians, the Persians, etc.

The genealogies are just a bunch of names and numbers, until you try to make some sense of it. Noah actually could have met his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Terah. Shem could have met his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Isaac. Shem saw 10 generations after him, and outlived seven of them. That’s pretty good for a guy who survived the flood!

12:1-4 When God called Abram to depart from his country, his family, and his father’s house to follow God, Abram was 75 years old. His father only lived to 205, and his grandfather only lived to 148! Abram’s life was half over, and God was calling him away from all comfort into the unknown. Talk about a mid-life crisis!

14:13 Abram is contacted when Lot is taken captive. Here is the first use of the word, “Hebrew.” It means “descended from Eber.” Back in chapter 11 we can see that Eber is Shem’s great-grandson. Since Abram was rich, he had the resources to rescue Lot when he was captured.

15:17 God alone passed between the bisected animal carcasses. Therefore, God’s covenant with Abram was not conditional on Abram’s own actions. Whether or not Abram kept his part of the bargain, by serving God, God would keep His promises, because He alone had walked between the animal pieces. It is a pledge that if one party reneges on the agreement, the same should be done to him as was done to the animals (as in cut in half). God alone walked through, therefore Abram doesn’t have to worry about being bisected.

Chapter 16

I’ve always kinda thought badly about Sarai. She’s demanding, unbelieving, and she terrorizes Hagar and Ishmael. However, it’s good to put some context to things. She’s only human, after all. When Abram had his “mid-life crisis,” Sarai went along with it. Now, she’s old, barren, and jealous. Her husband isn’t much help, either. He seems to shrug his shoulders and say, “Whatever.” However, as much focus as I’ve seen so far in Genesis on genealogy (both words coming from the same root), it’s not hard to imagine the pressure that she must’ve felt as a barren woman. It was shameful. She had no purpose in life. In her 127 years of life, she only bore one child. I wonder if she would’ve died if it were a girl. Nowadays, there is not as much pressure for women to have babies (or sons), but back then, Sarai would have faced a lot of pressure.